In recent years, many liquids such as motor oil and transmission fluid have been stored in resiliently flexible plastic containers. The known containers include a neck portion extending outwardly from a body portion with a discharge opening having a cap member threadingly screwed thereover. The external cap member is generally a tamper-proof type cap having a tear strip along its lower peripheral edge which separates when the cap is unscrewed from the neck of the plastic bottle.
In some instances, a thin, frangible sealing member is adhered to the peripheral wall edge defining the discharge opening in the neck portion. Once the external cap is unscrewed, the sealing member is broken to empty the contents of the bottle into the place where it is to be poured. For example, in known motor oil storage containers, the frangible member must be broken to pour the contents into the engine inlet oil opening. Therefore, the discharge opening is necessarily completely open before the storage bottle is inverted. Generally, when the bottle is then inverted, motor oil spills onto the engine before the bottle neck opening is registered with the oil inlet opening into the engine.
A variety of outlet closure mechanisms for squeeze bottles composed of resiliently flexible materials is known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,133,457 discloses a squeeze bottle with a valve septum designed to open upon squeezing the resiliently flexible dispenser bottle. Here, so long as the container is squeezed, the septum remains open and allows liquid to discharge. Once squeezing stops, the septum recloses. Openings in the septem allow air to reenter the bottle for further dispensing when the bottle is squeezed again.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,702 discloses an automatic dispenser cap that dispenses material so long as the container is squeezed. Upon release of the bottle, the dispensing valve recloses and air is allowed to flow back into the bottle for the next desired discharge bottle.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,669,323 shows a one-way valve insert usable with a collapsible dispensing container tube for storing highly viscous materials such as toothpaste. Similar types of dispensing devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,552,715; 2,679,954; and 3,674,183. Each of these known containers discharges a limited amount of liquid while reclosing when the container is no longer manually squeezed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,241,726; Reissue 29,850; 3,998,354; 4,269,330; and 4,651,885 show various types of one-way valve structures and closure members which perform various types of functions. Such structures are tamper-proof and one-way dispensing when squeezing the container.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,986,640; 4,236,652; and 4,493,574 show various types of fault line structures which break open when bending or tearing dispenser packages. These prior art laminated plastic packages are relatively thin and commonly used to dispense ketchup, mustard, salt, pepper, shampoo and the like. Upon fracture, the measured amount of material is accordingly dispensed.
None of these prior art dispensing packages overcome the basic problem associated with a storage container for liquid such as motor oil and transmission fluid to be poured into a relatively small inlet opening on an engine.